Hack Hospitality brought together two groups that normally don’t overlap — techies and the hospitality industry, both from the Tampa Bay area — with the purpose of coming up with applications to solve problems that the hospitality industry faces.

In the video, we talk about:

Why Sourcetoad was involved with the hackathon. The short answer: Because hackathons are a key part of a healthy tech ecosystem, and a healthy tech ecosystem is good for the company. Tampa Bay has the right elements to become the Austin of Florida, and we’re doing what we can to see that come about.

What Sourcetoad does. Sourcetoad is a software development shop that doesn’t just build software for clients. We take on “the hard stuff” — the highly networked, analytical, data-crunching, enterprisey, internet of things-y development work that confounds other software development organizations.

What Sourcetoad brought to the hackathon. Since one of our clients is a cruise line, we brought cruise ship-related datasets and challenges. The datasets contained all sorts of information specific to cruise ships, while our challenges were about real issues facing the cruise industry.

What was special about Hack Hospitality: It was a confluence of greatness — great organizers, a great space (The Station House and Iron Yard are by far the most beautiful and comfortable hackathon venues I’ve been in), the best catering at a Hackathon that I’ve experienced, thanks to Ciccio Restaurant Group (the people behind Green Lemon,Daily Eats, and other places) and Saltblock Hospitality Group, and of course, the enthusiastic Tampa Bay tech community.